


Arms Up

by capcarolsdanver



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Carol and reader train so there's minor violence, F/F, One Shot, also mention of injuries from a fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capcarolsdanver/pseuds/capcarolsdanver
Summary: This fic is based off a request!After reader gets injured on a mission, Carol offers to give reader some hand combat training. Of course, they both have feelings for the other which are only amplified due to their very close proximity, but maybe they can get passed their blushing long enough for one of them to actually make a move.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Reader
Kudos: 63





	Arms Up

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic I've written in months, so I'm way too nervous to be posting it. Thank you to everyone who may have waited patiently for any new writing from me!
> 
> As always, feedback is appreciated.
> 
> Come chat with me on tumblr! @capcarolsdanver

Carol paces the length of the training room floor, her nerves absolutely buzzing. She showed up early in the hopes of reigning in this feeling that she’s had since she offered to help you train the previous day, but to her dismay, luck is apparently not on her side.

It’s a feeling that she’s familiar with, though she is far from fond of it. She’s _Captain Marvel_. She can’t be nervous, it just doesn’t fit her persona.

Still, she lets her mind wander to the reason why she’s been so uncharacteristically nervous so often for the past few months. _You_.

The previous evening when you had returned from your mission nursing a bloodied nose and a busted lip, you had walked up to Carol feeling pretty sorry for yourself. She had looked at you with concern, wincing at the damage to your face.

“Son of a bitch got a couple lucky punches in,” you pouted.

Carol chuckled lightly, knowing fully well that you would recover from your injuries in no time, but still studying you carefully anyway.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’ve been relying too much on my powers,” you offered as an explanation, gingerly touching the wound to your lip to check that it hadn’t started bleeding again. “I’ve obviously been slacking with my combat training.”

Carol’s eyes snap up from where they had been watching your fingers touch your lip to meet your eyes. “I could run you through some training sessions,” she says. “I mean, if you want.”

“Really? You’d do that?” You asked, a new sense of energy running through you despite the exhaustion that weighed down heavily on your entire body from your mission.

“Of course I would,” she said, something about her tone making you nervous.

“That would be awesome, Carol! But please just prepare yourself. I’m pretty rusty.” You tried to pull your lips into an apologetic smile, though it quickly turned into a wince at the pain the movement caused to your busted lip.

“Yeah, something about your face right now tells me you might be more than a little rusty,” Carol joked, letting out a laugh at your glare and easily dodging your arm when you threw it her way. “Looks like we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Ha ha,” you deadpanned, unable to stop a smile from gracing your lips, however slight it may have been.

Carol is suddenly snapped out of her daydream at the sound of the gym door swinging open. Her eyes fly to the door, hoping to see you walk through the open doorway. When she instead sees Nat and Clint enter the room, chatting away as usual, she visibly deflates.

“Damn, don’t be too disappointed to see us, Danvers.”

“No, sorry,” Carol quickly says. “I’m not.”

“Sure,” Nat says, eyeing her. “You waiting for someone in particular?”

She can tell from the look on Natasha’s face that she knows exactly who Carol’s waiting for.

“I’m training with Y/N today,” she says, trying to pass it off as nothing, but she catches Nat’s growing smirk. “Shut up,” she mutters, her face heating up.

Nat laughs loudly at Carol’s embarrassment, shouting out a “Have fun!” as her and Clint walk off to the other side of the gym to set up for their own training.

Carol watches them walk away, embarrassment now mixing with her nerves. She heads over to one of the punching bags to hopefully release some of her completely unwelcome nerves before you arrive. It actually works for a while and she quickly falls into a rhythm, circling the punching bag and delivering blow after blow, completely oblivious to everything around her.

“I see you got started without me.”

Your voice from behind her makes Carol jump. She turns around in a flash to face you, heaving out a few heavy breaths. You make an attempt to stifle a laugh, though your laughter completes fades anyway when your eyes take it upon themselves to rake over Carol’s body.

She’s wearing a crop top and a pair of tight leggings, not unusual gym attire for her but you don’t usually get to see it up close like this. Her defined abs are on full display, glimmering with sweat and it takes you several seconds too long to drag your eyes from her body to her face.

Carol doesn’t seem to notice your staring, her own eyes taking in your appearance too, before you both meet each other’s gaze.

“Nope, just warming up,” Carol finally says, and it takes you a second to realise she’s replying to you, having almost forgotten you had even said anything to begin with. “I’m ready when you are.”

She leads you over to an empty sparring mat, picking up her towel on the way and wiping the sweat from her face. You watch her with rapt attention.

_God, she’s magnificent._

In between this and watching her pick up her water bottle to squirt some water into her mouth, you realise that maybe taking her up on her offer to train with you wasn’t exactly the smartest idea. Sure, you were always looking for any excuse to spend more time with Carol, but this could actually be the death of you. Of course, that thought quickly leaves your mind a moment later when she smiles at you and beckons you over to her.

You unceremoniously dump your gym bag on the floor next to Carol’s and grin at her, stepping in front of her on the padded floor of the sparring area.

“Let’s just ease into this, okay?” Carol says, rolling her shoulders back and shaking her arms to loosen up a little more.

“Okay,” you say absentmindedly, distracted by the view in front of you. Carol looks at you expectantly for a moment before reaching for your hands and lifting them in front of you in a defensive pose.

“Arms up.”

“Right.” You shake your head to bring yourself back to reality and focus on Carol’s stance. You attempt to copy it, your body moving stiffly, and earn yourself a laugh from Carol.

“God, no wonder you got punched so easily.”

“Hey!” You retort, taking a friendly swipe at Carol which she is quick to redirect, catching you completely off guard and throwing you off balance.

“Oh, you’re in for it now, Danvers!” You exclaim, regaining your balance and going for a straight punch at her.

She easily turns her body out of the way and you lurch forward again. Within a second, she’s moved herself behind you, throwing her arm around you to capture you in a light headlock.

“You sure about that?” She teases.

She’s clearly enjoying herself far too much, smug as ever, and she refuses to budge even as you try to shimmy your way out of her hold. Her smirk is only knocked off her face when your hands land on her arm and she suddenly seems to realise the position she’s put you both in. She glances at your face, mere inches from her own, before she quickly releases you and steps back to let you ready yourself again.

She has distinctively flushed cheeks, which normally you wouldassume was a side effect of working out. Except for the fact that she’s Captain Marvel, and so she doesn’t generally deal with the common side effects people normally deal with from working out.

You brush it off though, figuring that your cheeks are probably just as flushed as hers.

Carol clears her throat and joins you again, her hands raised in fists.

“Let’s do some defensive work,” she says, getting back on track. “I’m gonna throw some punches at you and I just want you to avoid them, okay?”

“That’s all there is to it? Jeez, I wish I knew that earlier,” you sigh sarcastically. “Could have avoided getting a split lip yesterday.”

Luckily, said split lip had almost completely healed since the mission yesterday. Like Carol, you can also regenerate and heal yourself, although at a slower pace than her.

Carol chuckles. “That’s really as simple as it gets, Y/N. You only need to avoid a punch enough that you can put yourself back into a dominant position.”

You come close to blurting out a joke about Carol wanting you in a dominant position, but think better of it and keep your words to yourself. You’re both already flustered enough without any additional sexual jokes.

“Arms up,” she reminds you and waits until you’re in position before she continues. “I’ll go slow for now, okay?” She says and when you nod she throws a slow punch your way, in line with your chest. You dodge her fist, moving to the left, but struggle to straighten up in time to dodge her next punch from the right and she stops before she makes contact with you.

“Remember to rotate your body. You want to use as little effort as possible avoiding an attack.”

She demonstrates for you a few times, reenacting the movement she wants you to do. You nod, trying not to let your eyes wander yet again as you watch her and try to mirror her movements. When she seems satisfied enough she goes back to throwing slow punches at you, and you successfully manage to dodge them all.

“Good,” she nods, her eyes intensely observing you. “You can try using your hands to redirect my punches, too.” You do as she says, though your actions are more of a swat at her punching hand than anything.

She laughs at your exaggerated movements. “Wow, you really haven’t done this in a while, have you?”

“Rude,” you mumble, letting your arms fall to your sides when Carol stops punching. She takes a step towards you and you almost instinctively step back, but force yourself to stay in place. You do, however, flinch ever so slightly when Carol reaches for your arms and lifts them back up in front of you.

You hope she can’t feel the nervous energy practically radiating off of you.

“Arms up,” she says once more, smirking when you roll your eyes at her.

“Say that one more time. I dare you.”

“Oh yeah?” She says, a playful eyebrow raising. “And what’ll happen if I do? It’s not like you can fight back.”

“Hey!” You exclaim, and she attempts to bite back a laugh when you glare at her. “This is just getting downright insulting now.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” She chuckles once more before composing herself and regarding you with warm eyes. “I’ll stop. Look, it’s a lot less complicated than you probably think it is. Your hands make the contact.” She touches your hands with her own. “But your shoulders are actually doing the motion for you.” Her hands move to your shoulders.

She leaves them there for a good few seconds, seemingly forgetting what she’s doing before she locks eyes with you and blinks. She clears her throat and quickly steps back. You try not to physically react to the disappointment you feel at the loss of her touch.

She demonstrates what she means for you again, but if you’re being honest your eyes are concentrating more on her blushing cheeks, an even deeper shade of red than they were before. You can’t remember ever seeing her this flustered, and the thought of her acting this way because of you kind of has you beaming on the inside.

Sure, you can admit to yourself that you have had a crush on Carol for just about as long as you can remember, but you could never have predicted that those feelings would be reciprocated, as much as you had hoped.

There were certain moments with Carol where you had wondered if she did have those same feelings for you, but you’d replay those moments over and over in your mind until you’d convince yourself you’d just imagined things.

Now, though, you’re not so sure you had imagined it at all.

You somehow manage to pay attention for long enough that you can grasp what Carol is trying to show you and you get through a few minutes of Carol throwing punches and you deflecting them with your palms, your body mimicking Carol’s earlier movements.

“Great work, Y/N!” Carol says after a while, sounding pleasantly surprised. You’re just as surprised as she is, but only because you’d actually managed to not mess up while your mind had been elsewhere. Instead of admitting that, though, you simply shrug.

“Well, I suppose I should give some of that credit to my instructor too,” you say. “Seems like I’m in good hands.” She smirks in return, drawing closer to you once more. She exudes the confidence you’re familiar with, apparently overcoming the nerves she was battling with only minutes ago.

“Well, what did you expect when you came to _the_ Captain Marvel for help?” She drawls, a cocky tone to her voice, and you roll your eyes to mask the sudden thrill you feel throughout your body at her rich voice.

“You’re name dropping yourself, now?” You raise an eyebrow but her smirk stays in place. “And I’m sorry, but if I’m not mistaken it was actually _you_ who came and offered me that help.”

“Wow, you’re right,” she plays along, a playful glint in her eyes now. “A great teacher _and_ a generous person. Man, I’m really something, huh?”

“So humble, too!” You enthuse sarcastically, though you can’t help but laugh. “Don’t get too cocky, Danvers. So far you’ve only taught me how to avoid punches in slow motion. If I got into another fight right now I think I’d end up in the exact same condition as I was last night.”

“Patience, Grasshopper,” Carol jokes, closing the distance between the two of you even further and touching your arm with her hand, keeping it there. You fight the urge to look at her hand, instead holding eye contact with Carol. “There’s still a lot for you to learn.”

“Like what?” You ask, fixated on Carol. The two of you barely have a foot between you but you still want to be closer to her.

“Like how to catch your opponent off guard.” You raise an eyebrow, a silent prompt for Carol to elaborate, and she chuckles before she continues. “You know. The element of surprise.”

“The element of surprise?”

“Mhm,” Carol nods. “It’s great knowing how to evade an attack, but it’s even better learning to recognise when there’s a potential opening for you to turn the tables and get the upper hand.”

“Right.” You nod along, playing her words over in your mind. Carol’s hand shifts slightly on your arm and this time you do lower your gaze to it for a moment. When you look back up, Carol seems completely entranced and you force yourself not to shift under her intense gaze.

Instead, you let Carol’s now apparent interest in you fuel your growing confidence. How you had never noticed it before, you don’t know. It seems like the most obvious thing to you right now.

Carol must at some point realise that she’s lost herself staring at you again because she eventually drops her hand and takes a step back.

“Let’s go again, this time a little faster,” Carol says and you stand in your defensive pose, waiting for Carol to take the lead. She’s clearly just as distracted as you, her eyes glued to you a moment longer before she stands in her own sparring pose. “Ready?”

Her words replay in your head again. _The element of surprise_. Your sudden wave of confidence quickly formulates its own plan, and as if to cement that plan in place, you see Carol’s eyes dart to your lips while she waits for your reply, spurring you on even more.

Before you put too much thought into it, you’re surging forward, your lips crashing into Carol’s in a rushed kiss.

She gasps against your lips in surprise and you feel her stumble backwards a little before she becomes more stable again. The kiss is only quick and you break away from Carol, leaving barely an inch between your lips. When you feel her lean towards you, you step back again, a smirk on your face.

“Now I’m ready.” You return back to your defensive pose. She looks dazed, her mouth hanging open as if she was trying to figure out if she’d just entirely imagined what had just happened. You raise an eyebrow at her, surveying her stance.

“Arms up,” you say, your smirk only growing with the absolute satisfaction you feel by throwing her own words back at her. She lets out a short laugh, unable to hold back a wide smile as she shakes her head at you in amusement.

“You’re unbelievable,” she says, not giving you a chance to respond before it’s her turn to press forward, capturing your lips in a kiss that leaves you gasping for breath. A moment later, she does put her arms up, throwing them over your shoulders to pull your body even closer while you slide your own hands around her waist, completely losing your mind at the feel of her bare skin under your palms.

The two of you are so lost in your own world that Natasha’s hollering from across the gym is just barely enough to pull you apart long enough for Carol to shout a few choice words back at her, offering her the middle finger as she grabs your hand with her free hand and pulls you towards the gym doors.

“I think that’s enough training for today. What do you say?”

You’ve never agreed with something so quickly before.


End file.
